Reading Roman women : sources, genres, and real life

Resource Information

The work Reading Roman women : sources, genres, and real life represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Waubonsee Community College. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Reading Roman women : sources, genres, and real life

Title remainder

sources, genres, and real life

Statement of responsibility

Suzanne Dixon

Creator

• Dixon, Suzanne

Subject

• Femmes -- Rome -- Historiographie
• Frau
• Geschiedbronnen
• History
• Rome (Empire)
• Romeinse oudheid
• Femmes -- Rome -- Histoire
• Vrouwen
• Women
• Women -- Historiography
• Women -- Rome -- Historiography
• Women -- Rome -- History
• Römisches Reich

Genre

• History

Language

eng

Summary

"Roman women were either luxurious sluts or domestic paragons - at least according to the elite men who wrote Roman history and poetry. These authors, preoccupied with masculine pursuits, introduced women into their works to make a moral point. Even Roman tombstones and the law emphasise feminine virtues and reflect biases about female nature. We also have our own prejudices about ancient Rome and Roman women. Derived from film, television and sensational novels, these prejudices affect the way we 'read' the ancient material. So how do we retrieve the lives of 'real' women?" "In this original treatment Suzanne Dixon presents a range of examples to show that our ideas of what we know about women's work, sexuality, commerce and political activity in the Roman world have been shaped by the format, or genre, of each ancient source. She suggests ways in which we can read the evidence (including what is left out) more critically. She considers legendary heroines like Verginia and Lucretia and what they tell us about Roman attitudes to rape and women's chastity. She has a sympathetic take on notorious bad girls like Clodia and Messalina and tries to retrieve less spectacular women from the meagre non-literary sources. She introduces us to a huge cast of Roman women, not only the larger-than-life Decadents of the Roman orgy, but the small traders of Ostia, the spinners, prostitutes and barmaids celebrated in Pompeian graffiti and the prosperous businesswomen and landowners of Rome and the Bay of Naples."--Jacket

Cataloging source

UKM

Dewey number

305.420937

Illustrations

• illustrations
• maps

Index

index present

LC call number

HQ1136

LC item number

.D59 2001

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography